2000 Dodge Ram 2500 Ext Cab 5.9l Cummins Turbo Diesel 4x4 No Reserve on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Ford Mustang Shelby GT350R named Road & Track Performance Car of the Year

With a 526-horsepower, 5.2-liter V8 that roars to 8,250 rpm, it's really hard to consider the 2016 Ford Shelby Mustang GT350R an underdog in any fight. However, the Shelby held the lowest as-tested price and was only middle of the pack in terms of power in Road & Track's 2016 Performance Car of the Year challenge. The 'Stang's numbers clearly didn't tell the whole story about the potent coupe because Ford's muscle car grabbed the title in this year's test. A model needs to be new or significantly updated to be eligible for the honor, and R&T found an impressive slate of eight candidates this year. The challengers included the Bentley Continental GT3-R, Cadillac ATS-V Coupe, Chevrolet Corvette Z06, Dodge Viper ACR, Mercedes-AMG GT S, and Porsche Cayman GT4. The Ferrari 488 GTB was the most expensive of the bunch with an as-tested price of $347,942, which is five times more than the Shelby. Once the group was together, R&T hustled them over curving roads and on the National Corvette Museum Motorsports Park. There was a lot to love about the Shelby, even in this impressive crew. "With a flat-plane crank and Sport Cup 2 tires, the GT350R is a Mustang turned up to 11," editor-in-chief Larry Webster said in the announcement of the results. The GT350R joins some great company. Past winners include the Porsche 911 GT3 last year and the Corvette in 2013. For some fantastic photography and the complete appraisal of these performance machines check out R&T's website for the full story. Related Video: ROAD & TRACK NAMES THE FORD MUSTANG SHELBY GT350R THE 2016 PERFORMANCE CAR OF THE YEAR New York, NY (November 9, 2015) – Road & Track today named the Ford Mustang Shelby GT350R the 2016 Performance Car of the Year, beating out seven of the world's best new sports cars. The article appears in the December/January issue, on newsstands November 17, and on RoadandTrack.com. "With a flat-plane crank and Sport Cup 2 tires, the GT350R is a Mustang turned up to 11," said Larry Webster, editor-in-chief of Road & Track. "Not only does the car have soul and harness so much firepower with such ease, but the real achievement here is that it's so approachable. It's a car you can't help but love." The Mustang Shelby GT350R was the winner by a runaway vote.

Jay Leno drives the Demon-powered SpeedKore carbon fiber Dodge Charger

Jay Leno drives all sorts of wild vehicles on his TV and YouTube series "Jay Leno's Garage," from concept cars to classics. Although many of the vehicles are museum quality, they don't all come through in straight by-the-book factory form, as Leno often likes to highlight the creative and insane builds from premium speciality aftermarket shops. One of his favorites is SpeedKore, which recently dropped by with its carbon-fiber-bodied 1970 Dodge Charger Evolution. After cementing itself as one of the best builds of the year at SEMA 2018, the high-performance Charger paid Leno a visit to show off its immaculately assembled blend of classic and modern Dodge. It's not the first time SpeedKore has stopped by, as they've previously shot videos together of the 1967 Chevrolet Camaro, the 2016 Ford Mustang Shelby GT350R, and the 1970 Dodge Charger Tantrum. The Charger featured here wears its Evolution name because it is an updated take on the Tantrum build (which had 1,650 horsepower, by the way), but the two are quite different. The Charger Evolution uses numerous parts from Dodge's recent superstars, the Challenger SRT Hellcat and the Challenger SRT Demon. In fact, it's one of the only ways in the world to drive a Demon engine with a manual transmission. Under the hood is the 6.2L Supercharged Hemi V8 from a Demon pre-production car, and SpeedKore has tuned it up to 966 horsepower. It pairs with a Tremec M6 6060 six-speed transmission from the Hellcat. At full bore, the whine of the supercharger paired with the grumble from the custom stainless steel SpeedKore exhaust headers makes for a thrilling, if not unharmonized, battle cry. Whereas some restomods have cut corners, shoddy build quality, or imperfect fittings, Leno notes that SpeedKore's work is top-notch, despite the entire exterior body and many pieces of the interior being fully replaced with glossy clear-coated exposed carbon fiber. According to SpeedKore Vice President Dave Salvaggio, the Charger weighs about 3,400 pounds. Check out the full video above or read full details from our time with the car at SEMA. And as a bonus, Autoblog photographer Drew Phillips recently got to spend a day shooting the Charger. His gallery of photos appears below. Speedkore 1970 Dodge Charger View 53 Photos

2015 Dodge Viper getting small increase in power

The Viper is used to being the most powerful car in the Dodge and SRT stables, but the arrival of the 2015 Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat means that's no longer the case. The serpentine supercar is, however, reportedly getting a small boost in output for 2015, amounting to all of five horsepower.
The increase was uncovered by Road & Track courtesy of the SAE J1349 certification process to which Detroit's Big Three automakers submit themselves and which reports the Viper's output at 645 hp instead of the 640 it was rated at until now. There are a hundred factors that could have contributed to the relatively mild boost in output (best guess? nothing at all changed...), but we doubt anyone's going to complain about some extra horses under the hood.
The five-horsepower boost brings the Viper that much closer to the 650-hp Chevy Corvette Z06, not to mention the 707-hp Hellcat, but the Viper's impressive power-to-weight ratio ought to mean it'll have little problem keeping up in a straight line - which is just one of the reasons why Chrysler won't shoe-horn the Hellcat into the Viper: as R&T points out, the supercharged engine is too heavy and the blower makes it too tall to fit in the Viper's engine bay.